Silver Lining

Designer Ashish N Soni sits down for a freewheeling chat on completing 25 years in the fashion business

MINIMALISM WITH MAXIMAL IMPACT is perhaps the best way to describe designer Ashish N Soni’s work. Over the course of the past 25 years—he calls the first decade “a long internship”—Soni has crafted a career out of creating a precise range of immaculate menswear. Systematic in his focus, he later turned his attention to capitalise on the growing womenswear market. “The lehengas and the saris were where the money was,” he says, with a laugh. In 2005, Soni was the first Indian designer invited to show his oeuvre at New York Fashion Week. And he hasn’t stopped innovating. Most recently, at Amazon India Fashion Week’s Spring 2017 showcase, he played with interesting shapes that blur the boundaries for men and women. His rendition of ‘puddle pants’ for women was an adaptation of flared trousers with dramatic silhouettes at the bottom. The voluminous trousers with a wide leg shape that gives the appearance of gathered folds at the hem is one of the focal looks in the collection. As Soni completes a quarter of a century in the business this August, Bazaar talks to him about his design journey, his fascination for denim, and what fashion stands for in today’s era of cultural appropriateness.

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